Gorilla’s Guides

These exams are essential in ensuring refugee Iraqi children’s academic efforts are encouraged and adequately validated; plus it’s a fantastic stepping stone for further education, in Iraq, in Syria or in other good universities across the world
DAMASCUS, Syria, August 15 (UNHCR) – Muhammad and Muhana look exhausted but relieved. The two 18-year-olds have just completed […]

Posted on August 18th, 2008 under Iraq, Middle East, Society And Economy. Tags: Children, Damascus, Iraq, Refugees, School Examinations, Syria, UNHCR. Comments: None

I take any job I can. We need the money.  I sometimes start at six in the morning and do not get back home until eight or nine at night. I have worked as a labourer, selling chai, cleaning shoes. We come from Ramadi, and I used to go to school there. I would like […]

Posted on June 16th, 2008 under Children, Human Rights, Iraq, Middle East, Society And Economy, War Crimes, Women and Children. Tags: Al Anbar (Governorate), Amnesty International, Baghdad, Child Exploitation, Child Poverty, Child Prostitution, Damascus, Death Squads, Deportations of refugees, Ethnic Cleansing, EU, Ghazaliyah, Hit, IDPs (Internal Refugees), Iraq, Jihad (District), Jordan, Khadra, Mahdi Army, Prostitution, Ramadi, Red Crescent/Red Cross, Refugees, Sweden, Syria, Women and Children. Comments: 1

“I put a lot of water into my baby’s formula, to make it last longer. My kids do not get to eat meat anymore. And we have given up on dinner: at night we just have some milk”.

Indexed under: Child Poverty, Children, Damascus, Poverty, Refugees, Syria

Posted on June 4th, 2008 under Children, Features, Human Rights, Iraq, Middle East, Society And Economy. Tags: Child Poverty, Children, Damascus, Poverty, Refugees, Syria. Comments: None

DAMASCUS, May 19 (IPS) - In the struggle now just to stay alive, everyone has forgotten that Iraq has lost, among other things, its tradition in sports. Some of its best sportsmen are now refugees.

In Fallujah a football stadium was turned into a graveyard through the April 2004 U.S. siege when people could not find […]

Posted on May 19th, 2008 under Features, Iraq, Sports, Team Members. Tags: Damascus, Fallujah, Fallujah General Hospital, IPS, IPS Reports, Karkh, Militias, Ramadi, Refugees, Sanctions, Soccer, Sports, Syria. Comments: 1

DAMASCUS, Apr 26 (IPS) - More than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty.
Mohammad Saleem ran a successful supermarket in Baghdad. “I was leading a comfortable life with my family, despite the 13 years of UN sanctions,” Saleem told […]

Posted on April 26th, 2008 under Human Rights, Iraq, Middle East, Society And Economy. Tags: Damascus, IPS, IPS Reports, Militias, Poverty, Prostitution, Refugees, Sanctions, Syria, UNHCR, WHO, Widows. Comments: None

Mass movement

UNHCR estimates that more than 4.2 million Iraqis have left their homes. Of these, some 2.2 million are displaced internally, while more than 2 million have fled to neighbouring states, particularly Syria and Jordan. Many were displaced before 2003; numbers have increased since. In 2006, Iraqis had become the leading nationality seeking asylum in […]

Posted on March 18th, 2008 under Features, Health, Human Rights, Iraq, Middle East, Society And Economy, Team Members, Women and Children. Tags: Damascus, Death Squads, Egypt, Ethnic Cleansing, IDPs (Internal Refugees), Jordan, Poverty, Red Crescent/Red Cross, Refugees, Rescue Work, Syria, Torture. Comments: None

Some people did go back when they had nothing to spend any more, especially after the Iraqi government promised to pay them money on return, many of them came back to Syria when they found that all those promises were just lies. On the other hand, Iraqis from the north and south are still fleeing […]

Posted on March 3rd, 2008 under Features, Human Rights, Iraq, Politics and Security, Society And Economy, Women and Children. Tags: Baghdad, Damascus, Fallujah, Features, Hear Our Voices, IPS, IPS Reports, Iraq, Jordan, Militias, Mosul, Peshmerga, Poverty, Refugees, Surge Failure, Syria, UNHCR, Women and Children. Comments: 1